What True Depression Feels Like, as Shown in "South Park"

Hey, you know

what

really sucks? Depression. That's why I don't like to talk about it. It not only takes your life, but it can also take the life of others. One of the reasons why it is so difficult to talk about

depression

is because there are different levels. What may seem like severe

depression

to one person is normal sadness to another. I think we have all gone through that period in our lives at some point. Those moments when we want to be optimistic about the future, but we struggle to find a reason to do so. This might be how someone watching this video

feels

right now, and that's why I'm making this video.

A crazy woman once said, "no one has time for that." And that's exactly how I feel about depression. Who the hell wants to be sad 24/7? When life is as short as it is. But how do you find peace when nothing goes your way?   Well, you do it like Stan did in South Park. Our story begins when Stan celebrates his tenth birthday. Start the episode excited, since who doesn't like birthdays? But he soon discovers the difficult truth about them.   That being, new era, means new change.  We like some changes and others seem like the end of the world to us.

In this case, very suddenly, the world as Stan knew it has unexpectedly changed for the worse. He starts to notice that suddenly all the music he listens to, no matter

what

it is, sounds like complete shit. Not only that, but the food he loved no longer tastes the same, and even hearing people talk is unpleasant to him. He quickly develops this extremely toxic personality, whether intentional or not. He takes cynicism to a whole new level. He starts complaining about literally everything.  Stan's friends slowly grow tired of his toxic negativity. There comes a point where they have to avoid it.

When Stan tries to talk to them, they make it very clear that they don't want to date him again.   Kyle is the one who still wants to hold out hope, but even he can't take Stan's toxicity anymore. Things get even worse for Stan when, moments later, his parents divorce. Having already had a negative opinion about the world, a sudden life change like this doesn't entirely help his situation. In fact, it makes him even more depressed than he already was.   In the following scenes you can't help but feel bad for both Kyle and Stan. Kyle really wants to help his friend, but he doesn't want Stan's negativity to alter his perspective of how he sees the world.

It's a pretty difficult situation and if I'm honest I'm not sure what the right way to approach it is. It begs the question: is it better to hold on to your friend in this situation and try to help them or to let them go completely? You can tell by Stan's body language that he's more serious than feeling like shit in the world at this point. He no longer sees the point in anything. Sure, he still gets out of bed and goes to school, but mentally he's not there. No one he talks to understands his situation.   I think the main problem here is that people are not willing to come to a middle ground.

Kyle and the counselor say, "Your attitude is unacceptable, Stan, and until you fix it, no one will want to talk to you." I think that kind of advice can definitely make someone feel alone. Having the belief that no one cares if you are depressed, no one cares that you need a friend and the only thing that matters is that you get over it or you will face the consequences. That's when the issue of toxic positivity comes into play. What good is positivity if you have to fake it for everyone?   I don't want to go too deep into this, because I think people can use toxic positivity as an excuse to stay depressed forever, and besides, Stan is wrong here too, you can't keep being a nasty clown and expect people to still want to date you.

Stan tells the counselor that he wants everything to go back to the way it was, but he tells him that's not going to happen because in life things change and that's just the way things are. Brief observation: one of the reasons he is depressed definitely has to be the terrible parents he has.   When your parents have toxic personalities, at some point their attitudes will rub off on you. Stan meets a group of people at a hospital thinking they are going to cure him, but eventually discovers that they are all crazy and take the movie "The Matrix" too seriously.

It may seem like a joke, but it is a serious problem that I have personally experienced.   When you're depressed or feeling hopeless, people can seriously take advantage of you. One day, you may meet someone who says they want to help you, when in reality their plan is to manipulate you to satisfy their needs and desires. In this case, Stan is told that the only way he can feel better is if he becomes an alcoholic and he uses that high to convince everyone that the world sucks. This leads Kyle to worry even more about Stan than he already was.

He tells his former friend, "sometimes the only way to move forward is to turn left." It's an interesting quote, but Stan doesn't follow this advice until the end of the story. He finally gets tired of people taking advantage of him and says enough with the alcohol. He had to realize, the hard way, that he doesn't want everything to go back to the way it was before because that would be boring. It's better to move on. He accepts that his life is changing, but he begins to be optimistic about the future.  The message here is that change is a good thing.   Well... it may depend on your way of thinking.  For Stan, a slight change in attitude is enough to cure his depression.

Even if he found it difficult to change his way of thinking. What this story expresses is that even if your life is not how you want it to be now, it is still possible to find peace in the current situation you find yourself in. Depression is temporary, it will pass, like all things. but that's only if you stay away from those toxic traps.   Those people who say they're your friends, but every time you hang out with them you feel like complete shit, they're probably not your friends.   Addictions that seemingly relieve pain temporarily will only make you more depressed in the long run.

I think what many of us need to realize, including me sometimes, is that sadness is not a bad thing. If you took away sadness then what is happiness? If happiness and sadness can coexist, then it's okay to feel the way you feel. It doesn't make you inferior to anyone, it doesn't mean people are living a better life than you, it means you're human and that's okay.   Once things finally get better, which they will, you'll thank that period of sadness for helping you discover what

true

happiness

feels

like. I hoped this video helped you and thanks for watching.